Alex Smith’s mantra: Stats are for losers

Before last season’s divisional-playoff game against the Saints, 49ers quarterback Alex Smith got a little testy when asked if he would throw for more yards than Drew Brees.

“I really don’t care,” Smith said. “I’m looking to outscore him. He can throw for as many yards as he wants.”

Four months later, Smith is still spreading his stats-are-for-losers mantra and using last year’s No. 1 overall pick to illustrate his point.

Asked today to account for why the 49ers ranked 29th in NFL in passing yards per game last year (183.1), Smith became, by his standards, somewhat animated.

He didn’t exactly raise his voice, but he was at least mildly irked.

“I could absolutely care less on yards per game,” Smith said. “I think that is a totally overblown stat because if you’re losing games in the second half, guess what, you’re like the Carolina Panthers and you’re going no-huddle the entire second half. Yeah, Cam Newton threw for a lot of 300-yard games. That’s great. You’re not winning, though.”

Whoa. Where did that come from?

It’s possible some of it comes from Jim Harbaugh, who, in promoting Smith for the Pro Bowl last year, had a term for some quarterback stats: low-hanging fruit.

“Just go right to the yardage line or the touchdown-passes line,” Harbaugh said in December. “I think people that understand football understand that there’s a lot more that goes into the job of a quarterback than those statistics.”

Harbaugh’s message evidently didn’t get out to the masses.

Newton, who had more yards (4,051 to 3,144), touchdowns (21 to 17) and 300-yard games (3 to 0) than Smith, was a Pro Bowl replacement while Smith stayed home.

Smith’s point: The 49ers went 13-3 and the Panthers were 6-10.

“We’re up in the third and fourth quarter and naturally you’re going to be in four-minute offense,” Smith said. “You’re going to be grinding it out. You’re going to be running the ball a lot more and you’re not going to have as many 300-yard passing games.”

By the way, Smith just missed a 300-yard game in that playoff win against the Saints, throwing for 299.

Brees, meanwhile threw for 462 yards, the second-most in a regulation postseason contest.

As Smith will be quick to tell you, Brees won the stat battle and lost the game.